The invention relates to a mowing machine provided with a hollow frame beam and with a plurality of mowing means supported by said frame beam, which mowing means are rotatable about axes of rotation extending upwardly and parallel to each other and which can be driven by means of a driving belt provided in said frame beam and pulleys, located in said frame beam, which are coupled to said mowing means.
A mowing machine equipped with a belt transmission for driving the mowing means has several advantages compared with a mowing machine wherein the mowing means are driven by means of a gear transmission located in the frame beam. Thus the driving mechanism is considerably lighter and less expensive and at the same time more silent when a belt transmission is used, and also it is possible for a mowing means to slip with respect to the belt when said mowing means strikes an obstacle, without the other mowing means having to be slowed down. With a gear transmission, however, the whole driving mechanism and all mowing means must be slowed down when one of the mowing means strikes an obstacle, which may lead to heavy loads and even breaking down of the transmission means or the like.
A disadvantage of the mowing machine wherein a belt transmission is used for driving the mowing means is, however, that the adjacent, partially overlapping mowing means must be arranged at different heights in order to prevent that the cutting knives of the mowing means touch each other in case of slip in the belt transmission possibly occurring at the location of one of the mowing means. In practice this may lead to an irregular mowing pattern, since the crop in adjacent strips covered by different mowing means may have different heights after mowing.
According to the invention the axes of rotation of the mowing means slope upwards during operation, when seen in the intended direction of movement, relative to a vertical plane extending in the direction of movement.
It has become apparent that as a result of said sloping arrangement of the axes of rotation said irregular mowing pattern can be pushed back to a considerable degree, and an even cutting of the crop to the desired distance from the ground can be obtained.
A further aspect of the invention relates to a mowing machine provided with a hollow frame beam and with a plurality of mowing means supported by said frame beam, which mowing means are rotatable about upwardly extending axes of rotation and which can be driven by means of a driving mechanism located in said frame beam, said driving mechanism being provided with driving means connected with said mowing means.
According to the invention stubs are secured to the bottom plate of the frame beam, on each of which stubs there is journalled, by means of bearings, a driving mechanism secured to a mowing means.
In this manner a simple and inexpensive support for the mowing means, consisting of only few parts, can be obtained.
A further aspect of the invention relates to a mowing machine provided with a frame having a hollow frame beam and a plurality of mowing means supported by said frame beam, which mowing means are rotatable about upwardly extending axes of rotation and which can be driven by means of a driving mechanism located in said frame beam, while a mowing means arranged near one end of the mowing machine is coupled to an outgoing shaft of a gear box arranged thereabove, one ingoing shaft of said gear box being provided with a pulley, which forms part of a belt transmission to be coupled to the rear of a tractor or the like.
With usual machines of this kind the outgoing shaft of the gear box is usually connected with a stub secured to the mowing means, by means of an intermediate shaft having two cardan joints, since the construction is usually not such that the central axis of the outgoing shaft of the gear box is and stays in line with the axis of rotation of the mowing means in question. This makes such known constructions complicated and costly, however.